LITTLE ROCK — QUOTE OF THE DAY “There is nothing left, just piles and bundles of flesh.” Murtaza Khan, a rescue worker at the site of an Airblue jet crash outside Islamabad that killed all 152 aboard Article, 1A
Blast at factory
in China kills 12
BEIJING - A powerful blast caused by a suspected gas leak rocked a plastics factory in eastern China on Wednesday, killing at least 12 people and seriously injuring more than a dozen others.
An initial investigation showed the explosion occurred after workers accidentally breached a propylene pipeline beneath the factory in downtown Nanjing, the capital of Jiangsu province in eastern China, state broadcaster CCTV reported.
Large amounts of the flammable, toxic compound apparently leaked into the Nanjing No. 4 Plastics Factory.
A statement issued earlier by the Nanjing city government said 28 were hospitalized with serious injuries in addition to five people killed outright. Seven of those injured apparently died later of their wounds, although the city government issued no updated figures.
Scores of others received treatment for head injuries, fractures and burns, the official Xinhua News Agency quoted the president of the Nanjing Gulou Hospital, Ding Yitao, as saying.
Xinhua reported buildings and vehicles within 100 yards of the blast were badly damaged and passengers on a passing bus also injured.
8 dead newborns found; couple held
PARIS - A French couple was in custody Wednesday after police found the corpses of eight newborn babies in a village in northern France, a judicial official said.
The official said the detained couple, in their mid-40s, were the parents of the dead babies, which were found on two different parts of their property in Villers-au-Tertre, not far from the city of Lille.
The official was not authorized to be publicly identified because the investigation is under way.
The prosecutor for the Nord region is planning a news conference for today.
France has seen a string of cases in recent years of mothers killing their newborns and saving and hiding the corpses.
In one case, a Frenchwoman, Veronique Courjault, was convicted last year of murdering three of her newborn children. During the trial psychiatrists testified that she suffered from a psychological condition known as “pregnancy denial.”Iraqi copter crash,
bombings kill 11
BAGHDAD - A sandstorm downed an Iraqi military helicopter Wednesday, killing its five-man crew, and two midmorning Baghdad bombings claimed the lives of six people, officials said.
Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Mohammed al-Askari said the helicopter was providing air protection to Shiite pilgrims traveling by road to the holy city of Karbala, when it crashed in the sandstorm early in the morning.
The crash is under investigation, al-Askari said.
Thousands of pilgrims are headed to Karbala, 50 miles south of Baghdad, for a religious holiday.
Meanwhile, the two bombings in Baghdad killed six people and injured 15 others in the eastern Shiite slum of Sadr City, police and health officials said.
The bombs, which went off close to each other about 9:15 a.m., were planted near a state-run bank where retirees were waiting to get their pensions, the officials said.
The dead included three men, two women and one Iraqi security official, officials said.
Front Section, Pages 4 on 07/29/2010